Imperthnthn

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The "boots" is a boot boy, a young servant in a house or hotel. In chapter 7 of A Study in Scarlet (1887), Arthur Conan Doyle shows Lestrade arriving at "Halliday's Private Hotel, in Little George Street" and using the same idiomatic tag: "The Boots volunteered to show me the room.” These bottom-rung hotel workers got their name from cleaning the boots of guests, though presumably they were often assigned other menial tasks as well. The one in the Ormond is bringing the two barmaids a tray of tea. They ignore him, but he demands to be noticed: "For them unheeding him he banged on the counter his tray of chattering china. And / — There's your teas, he said." They continue to ignore him, staring out the window at the viceregal cavalcade:

     — What is it? loud boots unmannerly asked.
     — Find out, Miss Douce retorted, leaving her spyingpoint.
     — Your beau, is it?
     A haughty bronze replied:
     — I'll complain to Mrs de Massey on you if I hear any more of your impertinent insolence.
     — Imperthnthn thnthnthn, bootsnout sniffed rudely, as he retreated as she threatened as he had come....
     On her flower frowning Miss Douce said:
     — Most aggravating that young brat is. If he doesn't conduct himself I'll wring his ear for him a yard long.
     Ladylike in exquisite contrast.
     — Take no notice, Miss Kennedy rejoined.

The holiday card shown here suggests that boot boys may have had a reputation for salacious curiosity about the guests staying in hotel rooms, which would be consistent with Joyce's depiction of the young servant clamoring to find out what the women are looking at and inferring an erotic motive. He is correct to do so: Miss Douce has called Miss Kennedy's attention to "the fellow in the tall silk" in one of the carriages rolling down the quay, and she has told her coworker that "He's looking.... He's killed looking back." Perhaps the boy picks up on this vibe, or perhaps he merely sees an opportunity to flirt with the barmaids. He is hardly the only one: after this early flurry of heterosexual sparks Sirens shows Simon Dedalus, Lenehan, Boylan, and Bloom all responding to the charms of the attractive young women, and the women (particularly the bold Miss Douce) actively cultivate the men's interest.

By turning Miss Douce's very conventional reproach into a nonsensical collection of taunting repetitive syllables, the boot boy replaces verbal communication with pure performative sound-patterning. Which is no doubt why "Imperthnthn thnthnthn" earns a place in the chapter's opening statement of musical motifs.